Derail



S. W. HAYES.

DERAIL. APPLICATION FILED JULY 3*, I9I8.

Lmlcllo Patented July 8, 1919.

Il!! I ,f ENToR n@ BY ATTORNEY V.

STANLEY W. HAYES, OF RICHMOND, INDIANA.

DERAIL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 8, 1919.

Application filed .Tuly 8, 1918. Serial No. 243,797'.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, STANLEY W. HAYES, United States citizen, residing in Richmond, Indiana, have invented the following described Improvements in Derails.

The invention consists in the structure of derails provided with hand grips for manual operation and more particularly the location and character of,a special hand-hold cavity in the wheel-tread-receiving part of the derail block proper whereby it may be manually thrown off the rail head with less eort and especially when frozen or icebound.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure l represents a section of a railroad rail with the derail in its open position thereon;

Fig. 2 is a top plan; and

Fig. 3 is a cross section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

In this preferred form of the invention the derail is shown as consisting lof a base l adapted to be spiked to the ties adjacent the rail and a derailing member 2 supported thereby and movable therein or thereon toward and from the rail so that, when being opened, it descends downwardly onto the rail head and when being closed, moves upwardly away from the rail head. The mounting for this purpose may be a simple pivot 3 supporting the rear of the body portion of the derailing member so that the derail block 4 may be swung to about 180 or a little more, toward and from the rail. When such derails are installed in use and intended for manual operation they are commonly provided with an opening or projection of some sort at the top center of the pivoted body just back of the derail block 4L to serve as a hand grip whereby they may be lifted and swung over from the rail. With large sized derails and this location of the grip manual operation is found very difficult and it frequently happens also, that when such derail blocks are frozen to the rail it is necessary to thaw them out before they can be moved. According to this invention the hand hold is formed as a lateral cavity 5 opening horizont-ally through the upright wall 6 of the derail block 4 and situated at the extreme end of the derailing member as a whole and thus as far as possible from the pivot 2. The said cavity 5 is also open on the side which is its bottom when on the rail so that in effect the cavity forms an opening' between the derail block and the rail. It is of suflicient horizontal dimension to accommodate the operators lingers and being relatively far from the pivot as above stated gives a maximum leverage for throwing the block over. In case the block be frozen to the rail it provides a pry-space in which a crow-bar or similar tool can be inserted to force a separation. The cavity is by preference formed in the extreme lateral end of the wheeltread-receiving portion of the block 4L,-the part irst encountered by the car wheeland it will be apparent that by pulling or prying at this eXtreme corner of the block a separation can be most readily produced. Such location has the further advantage that it is at a point subject only to the downward pressure of the car wheel when the derail is functioning and hence the cavity involves no weakening of the structure and no additional metal is required to make up for the lateral opening. Numerous other advantages accrue from the character and location of the grip cavity as above described and as will be apparent without description, it being obvious that such a cavity tends to keep itself clear of snow when on the rail head and that when off the rail it naturally assumes an inclination which avoids the collection ofV water likely to freeze and fill the cavity. The space 8 appearing in F ig. 8 is merely a core hole present for the purposes of lightness in the block; it might be solid so far as this invention is concerned.

Claims:

l. In a derail, the combination of a base and a derail' block supported thereby and movable thereon downwardly toward and upwardly from the rail-head and formed with a horizontally open cavity in the upright lateral wall of its wheel-tread-receiving portion adapted to form a hand-hold.

2. The derail structure specified in claim l wherein the hand-hold cavity is open et the bottom as Well as laterally, thereby forming a space in Which a lever may be inserted to pry the derail block from the 5 rail.

3. The derail structure of claim l, the

specification.

' STANLEY W. HAYES.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, y Washington, D. C. 

